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Domestic Violence & Abuse
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| Yes | 80% | 110 votes | Total: 138 votes | |
| No | 20% | 28 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe results of a two-year study in India were reported in The Deccan Herald on 13 August 2003, showing:
8 out of 10 men were violent to their wives.
4 out of 10 men were physically violent to their wives
1 out of 2 men committed sexual violence against their wives
1 out of 3 men were violent to their wives during pregnancy
1 out of 3 men caused physical injury to their wives.
The report concluded that 80% of husbands felt force was justified if the wife was disrespectful to him or his family. 60% of husbands justified force if the wife did not follow his instructions.
On 13 October 2005 a United Nations report claimed that two thirds of married women in India were victims of domestic violence. The report stated that as many as 70% of Indian women between the age of 15 and 49 were victims of beatings, rape and coerced sex.
In 2005, India's National Crime Records Bureau revealed that 155,553 crimes had been committed against women in that calendar year. Of these, 68,810 cases were in the nature of domestic violence. The Bureau also released the statistics that every 9 minutes, it registered a case of cruelty against a woman by her husband or her husband's family. One dowry-death case was reported every 77 minutes.
Reports elsewhere listed the most common abuses against women as:
Female Feticide (selective abortion)
Domestic violence
Dowry Death or harassment
Mental and physical torture
Sexual trafficking
Public humiliation
In October 2006 the first specific law in India against domestic violence, was passed. This legislation included penalties for harassment by way of dowry demands as well as protection orders for women. Studies leading to this new legislation concluded that every 6 hours a young married woman was burnt to death or beaten to death or driven to commit suicide.
Where the National Crimes Record Bureau recorded a crime against women every 9 minutes in 2005, it now recorded a similar crime every 3 minutes during the first 10 months of 2006.
The report of 2003, showing that 80% of husbands felt they were justified in committing violence against their wives, is very alarming.
What may be considered more alarming was a report from the International Institute for Population Studies. Stated here was that 56% of women believed that wife beating was justifiable in certain circumstances. What circumstances? Well - going out of the house without the husband's permission was one. Another circumstance was cooking a bad meal. The Institute suggested in its report that maybe a change of mindset was in order for India's female population.
While it may be some time before the affects of the new legislation can be measured, it is encouraging to see that the problem of domestic violence is being addressed.
Learn more about this author, Elisabeth Mcgrath.
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No
Violence? YES; domestic? NO
India is still ill understood by people who have not been a part of its complex society.
India is by a far distance, the most family-centric society in the whole world. In the Western world, the individual is the central unit of the society, and the society exists for the individual's welfare. In some other developed countries, it is somewhat different. In Japan, it is the 'kaisha'(company) that is the center of the society, with most social and cultural traditions, like strong emphasis on loyalty, life long employment etc being its associated characteristics. In India, the family is not only the central unit of the society, but also the center of the universe for every individual.
The family centric nature of society is both a boon and a bane at the same time.
For an Indian, when it comes to family, nothing else - absolutely nothing else matters! Neither the society, nor the country, not even values like honesty and integrity. An Indian, from his early childhood learns to live only for the family. And remember, family is not just hubby and spouse with their children, but extends to parents, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren, uncles, aunties, nephews and nieces, sometimes even distant relatives if they are living with you or are otherwise close to you. It is this dedication to family which makes a highly corrupt Indian easily acceptable in the society, but a man of absolute integrity who does not take great care of his family a despicable character.
On the pro side, family centric nature has many advantages too, and the greatest of them is the great degree of security arising from the family enclosure. It is a very rare phenomenon to have one member of an Indian family being tortured by another in a violent manner. It does not mean that there is no domestic violence at all. It only means that the said violence is only rarely threatening in nature. Most often such violence is very mild, and used only to impose discipline, or sometimes imprudent impulsive act of individuals under stress of difficult lives.
Domestic violence targets in Indian homes are not ladies and children, but sons and wives. The Indian culture and tradition does not allow any kind of violence against unmarried girls, as they considered a form of divine purity. Sons are invariably too precious irrespective of their age, but may face some physical punishment to discipline them. It is rare for such punishment to be threatening in any manner. So it only leaves wives as possible objects of domestic violence. However, in most educated homes, physical violence is absolutely rare. In case of very poor families of unskilled labor too, it is uncommon, simply because the ladies work and earn as much as the gents do and are not dependent in financial terms. It is generally in the low middle class homes afflicted with addiction to alcohol or some other substances, that most cases of domestic violence takes place.
However, this does not mean that there is no violence. Outside the family, it is a tough world, and the family-centric Indian does not care too much about social values and betterment.
It would be appropriate to say that other than certain aberrations, domestic violence is less in India than in many other places on this planet.
Learn more about this author, V. Kumar.
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